Wishlist ready, meetings scheduled, Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu lands in Delhi

Sources in the state government said Naidu sought reports on pending irrigation projects, the Amaravati capital project, the state of infrastructure including state highways and roads, and a general report on the financial status of the state before leaving for Delhi. All these issues are likely to be taken up for discussion, it is learnt.

Sources said he will seek additional funds, concessions and tax breaks, particularly if special category status cannot be granted to the state.

There are three ministers from Andhra Pradesh in Modi’s Cabinet, and they will accompany Naidu to the meetings, it is learnt. They include TDP’s Srikakulam MP Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, Guntur MP P Chandrasekhar, and BJP MP from Narasapuram B R Srinivas Varma.

According to state government sources, apart from Modi, Naidu is likely to meet Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Health Minister JP Nadda, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Shivraj Chouhan, and Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal. Meetings with Modi, Shah, Khattar, and Chouhan are expected to take place on Thursday. “With the Finance Minister and Defence Minister, he’ll most likely meet on Friday,” said a source.

He lands in New Delhi around 7.15 pm on Wednesday and will leave on Friday afternoon. During his time here, a few industrialists are also likely to call on him.

In his meetings, Naidu, it is learnt, will press for funds for specific projects. “The preference would be to get money released for big-ticket projects such as the Polavaram national irrigation project and development of Amaravati,” said a source.

The Andhra Pradesh government, in a meeting with the Finance Minister earlier this month, has already asked for a “multi-year allocation for the completion of the Polavaram project,” which is expected to fulfill the state’s drinking water, irrigation, and power needs. The project’s total cost stood at around Rs 55,500 crore when it was approved by the Technical Advisory Committee in 2019.

Apart from that, the state has asked for central assistance in building Amaravati as the “sole capital of Andhra Pradesh”, and an allocation of Rs 15,000 crore towards essential infrastructure development. The provisional estimate to construct Amravati city is around Rs 1 lakh crore, of which essential infrastructure such as the Raj Bhawan, high court, secretariat, legislative Assembly and Council and the land development and trunk infrastructure could cost over Rs 50,000 crore in the next five years.